Are teachers really the best teachers?

I had the pleasure of observing this in my classroom the other day.

We have been working on rereading our work and checking for errors and then correcting some of those errors independently (refer to earlier post to read about our proofreading wall). The girl on the left had recently figured out how to use a dictionary to proofread and edit her work (with great success). She has now become one of our dictionary experts. When ever the children are stuck or don't remember how to use the dictionary then she is one of our go to people.
While I was working with a group I saw these girls engage in the above learning conversation. Thinking that this is gold I quickly grabbed my phone and started filming. I would have loved to have shown more but because I was trying to be sneaky one of children didn't see my phone on the ground and sat in front of it, thus ending this impromptu filming session. What you don't see, is the girls working together to find a number of words successfully. The little expert scaffolded her buddy, taking her through step by step and then slowly handing over control to let her achieve success independently.
There are times that we teachers just can not give one on one lessons to our students even though they need them. I think having class experts in a great way to give that one on one tuition to those who need it. This approach also helps the experts become proficient at the skill they are using.
In my view it's a win, win!

Giving kids the gift of independence

I know I've said this before, but being with Year 2s I'm always amazed by how quickly they pick up new skills.  The progress they make and the milestones they reach almost daily is so rewarding.  There are somethings that go outside the conventional curriculum that I thought would be worth teaching.  A little while ago I heard someone say that through teaching they don't prepare their students for the year level ahead, they prepare them for life.  I decided that this is a motto that I should live by.  I though about the skills that children (and adults) need no matter what path they choose... independence came to mind. Having the skills to independently solve problems when something goes wrong or just working through a process independently (just giving it a go) before asking for help.

Considering that I'm teaching Year 2s I couldn't just hand over the reigns completely but I could start giving them these skills in small steps. There are the usual put your book bag where it needs to go and put away your reading book, but that wasn't enough for me.  I decided to get them to start proofreading their writing. I don't mean just look at it and say yes I'm done. No I mean really proof read!

I sat down with my children and asked them about the things that I usually correct in their books.  We came up with the following list: spelling, fullstops, capital letters, adding missing words and asking questions to get the kids to add more writing. I then asked them, "which of these things could you try checking yourselves?" We came up with another list that then went on our wall. This is how the Proofreading Wall came to be.  The idea behind it is that the children can go somewhere quiet to read over their work and go through our checklist.  While they were there they could see other children who were working on the same step and swap books to read each other's work.  This is our wall in action:

At first (and on the odd occasion now) I had to remind my kids to read over their work.  In general though my students diligently check their work without me. They check their spelling words in dictionaries (another skill I had to teach them, and they picked it up really quickly), they add full stops and capital letters.  My expectation of them now is that they do not come to see me for a conference until they have gone to the Proofreading Wall and read their story with a buddy.  The results I'm seeing in their writing is pretty impressive.  They are not waiting for me to give them all the answers. Those who know how to use a dictionary teach the others. Those who understand full stops and capital letters coach their buddy.  They are being true collaborative learners.

This proved to me that we cannot underestimate our students. I went in with the mindset that if my senior had trouble doing this then how could my little people. Well guess what? I was wrong! They can do it, and they can do it well! If they can't, then it's because they haven't learnt how to do it yet.

What the?

Our syndicate is focussing on charities this year. We looked at what a charity does, how they work and why we need them. From this we have began to focus on one charity that will then be our focus for fundraising.
So before we get into the planing stages of this year long project we needed to find out what our chosen charity is all about.  I have started the children up on an inquiry learning project. They have been working in small groups. At this stage (while we are going through the note taking steps) I have given the information to the class. I thought it was simple and easy to follow, however, after asking the children to read the information I realised that it didn't seem so simple to them.

I talked to some of the children around the room about what they were reading and although they understood the main points of the text a few didn't understand specific words.

Now when I was a kid I was expected to go and find the meaning of words in a dictionary myself. Mind you English was my second language and early on in my NZ school life I didn't understand many words at all, so I got loads of practice looking for words in a dictionary. What I found interesting was that some children in my class were completely stumped and didn't know what to do. When we discussed what they could do to figure the meanings of these words out they looked at me like I was from another planet.
"You mean you aren't just going to tell me?"
I thought that they would have figured out by now that I don't make things easy for them.

So my question is... what is happening that our students are increasingly achieving less and less in vocabulary tests and are becoming more confused by dictionaries (and I don't just mean the paper ones, online too).
I worked with a group to find meanings to words and for the first part of the exercise they managed to track the word down and even read the definition but that was it. Nothing seemed to settle and the meaning was not applied to the text. I had their little eyes looking up at me as if to say, "here it is, I found it! Now will you tell me what it means?"
We struggled for a while but we got there in the end. I endeavour to keep giving my students interesting vocabulary to figure out the meanings of. I will keep using difficult words when I speak just to expose them to something different.
But next year I will need to start again...

So what do we do? How do we increase our kids vocabulary and how do we continue to develop these skills that our kids seem to be loosing?